Deschamps inspires revolution in Monaco

His team was in crisis just 12 months ago, but the former Chelsea player has led a remarkable turnaround in its fortunes since, writes Rob Hughes

IN THE principality where Arsène Wenger cut his managerial teeth, a young pretender we know so well is threatening to surpass him. At 37, Didier Deschamps, once a Chelsea blue, is guiding Monaco as coach.

He has a young team and several players on loan at a club that broke its bank in Monte Carlo.

Monaco finished second by one point in the French League last year, and somehow survived a summer in which the authorities tried to shut them down because of debts of £62m. Even in a tax haven, the rich passed them by and let them sink.

But Deschamps stayed, players such as the Italian goalkeeper Flavio Roma, the impressive midfield playmaker Ludovic Giuly and the Croatian misfit Dado Prso linked up in attack with a 19-year-old from Togo, Emmanuel Adebayor.

Somehow, the bills were paid and the creditors appeased. Monaco kept working at Deschamps’s style, which